Cleopatra Eye Makeup Tutorial

How to Recreate Beautiful Cleopatra Eyes

Want an interesting and elegant costume party idea? Cleopatra eye makeup and old Egyptian make up is beautiful and exotic, perfect for costume parties!


Cleopatra is well known for being one of the most beautiful and powerful women in history. She and her family were of Greek descent, but Cleopatra became the last pharaoh to rule Egypt after the death of her father.


Cleopatra was also the only person in her ruling family to learn Egyptian, as the family primarily spoke Greek from their homeland. Becoming more and more Egyptian herself, Cleopatra fittingly identified herself as the human reincarnation of Isis, an Egyptian Goddess.


More about Egyptian Eye Makeup and Costume Makeup

Traditional Egyptian Eye Makeup

It is difficult to get a historically accurate representation of the eye makeup she might have worn during 50-40BC.


In those times, Egyptians wore black kohl around their eyes to shield them from the sun and to ward off eye infections. They were also known to wear malachite, a green powder that was brought over from Sinai.

This is likely why many modern interpretations of Cleopatra include eyes lined in black and high set green eyeshadow.


Everyone wore eye makeup, even men and children. The makeup you had and the containers it was put in was a sign of the family’s wealth and prestige.

This explains why even the poorest Egyptian family members were buried with pots of makeup.

Cleopatra Eye Makeup and Wardrobe is a great costumethat is unique, timeless and elegant. The look is reasonably simple to achieve.

You will need either a Liquid Black Eyeliner, I suggest this one from Maybelline or if you prefer a Smudge Pot with an angled brush. I suggest this one from Japonesque it is the Best Angled Brush I have ever used!

This look also requires a bronze-gold eyeshadow or fat eyeliner pencil and a medium green eyeshadow of your choice.

Cleopatra Make Up

Creating the wing is the most difficult and important part of this tutorial, without it, you won't have your Cleopatra eye makeup on right now will you?

So we will start there.

Using scotch tape is the easiest way to create the wing.


Take each piece of tape and stick them completely onto the underside of your arm. This will remove most of the glue and keep from pulling on your eyes.


Then, take the first piece and align it from the outer corner of your eye towards your temple.

Align this piece of tape from point A to point B according to the photo diagram.

Take the second piece of tape and align it from the corner of your brow towards your temple, as does point B to point C.


Take your black eyeliner pen or liner brush, and carefully line top and bottom from the inner corner of your eye to the outer corner.


Then continue your upper lash line from point A sweeping out to point C, filling in the triangle gap.

This is your Cleopatra 'wing'.

The next step is to take your bronze gold color and line just over and below the black eyeliner as shown in the picture.

This will give your eyes a multidimensional look that royalty would have.


Lastly, take your eyeshadow brush and sweep it from your eyeliner to your eyebrows for a true Cleopatra look.

Don’t forget to trim and fill in your eyebrows! Full eyebrows are very important to this look.


Once you are finished, complement your look with a toga-like robe with red and or gold adornments, gold jewelry, strappy sandels and a headpiece of your choice.



› Cleopatra Eye Makeup
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